Icons are great!
The elementary project started with elementary icons on September 21, 2007. At the time, that was the entire scope of the project. The only other really great icon set out there for open desktops was Tango, and that just seemed not quite good enough. So, it started by trying to copy Mac OS’s icon set. And then it was redoing Mac OS’s icon set in the style of Crystal icons by Everaldo. And then it started to go a different direction. It was being being better than that. It was being better than Tango. And for a while, it was going pretty well. And then KDE4 came around the corner and brought with it the Appeal project. Then it all changed. Then elementary icons became the elementary project.
So now, what is the elementary project? It’s about bringing an amazing computing experience to everyone on the planet, for free. And, that’s something huge to say. What that means is building a desktop operating
system that not only tops other Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora, but creating something that can compete with Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. And that means marketing this product, distributing the product, supporting the product, and doing it all for free. But, then there’s other implications to that statement as well. And, as the project grows, we’ll find out just how big it gets and how many people we can reach with such a limited budget.
Look at all that pretty!
Okay, so why should you care about the elementary project? Well, have you ever gotten a virus or not had the money to buy expensive software like Microsoft Office or been frustrated because your computer was going slow or even just wished it was a little nicer to look at? That’s why you should care. Because we’re fighting everyday frustrations that you have using your computer. We want to never get viruses either. We want the computer to start up in under 20 seconds. We want to not worry about managing our computer and just use it. And most of all, we really don’t want to have to pay for it. So, our interests are aligned. We’re not a company, we’re an organization. We care about building the best product and offering the best services out there to make things easy for you. We’re not blinded by profits, we’re not limited by shareholders or board members, we’re not afraid to take risks. And that means the absolute best computing experience for you and for us.
Hi! Daniel,
Happy New Year.
Was going through your idea, i like it a lot. And your icon set is clear, and beautiful.
Even I am passionate about the an free OS being able to compete with OS X, and windows.
And an open world.
Can we take this forward,
Please reply, I’ll be eagerly waiting.
Cheers,
Animesh
Hey Animesh,
Sorry for the late reply, I haven’t been paying very good attention to the blog! But, of course we’re moving forward
I’m glad you like what we have so far and I’m really excited for what’s coming.
HI! Dan
The new elementary nautilus is beautiful and useful…
1) When are you planning to release the OS?
2)What about professional support and all?
Have you come up with certain plan.
Can i help in this regard.
I would love to spread Elementary as a way of computing in future.
And work with you.
Animesh,
1. It will be very soon. This year
There’s a lot of things we’re working on and I want them all to work properly.
2. For now, Support will be entirely community based. The Forums are a great place to get help and we’re actively working on a user guide.
I’m open to suggestions
can you email me? Daniel.p.fore@gmail.com
I hate to be “that guy using Windows,” but do you have a release of your iconset for Windows XP? Ideally, I suppose I would really like something like the Super Turbo Tango Patcher, but really I’d settle for a whole scad of 32×32 and 16×16 .ico’s.
@ doctorfrog
hehe, well clearly the solution is to install Linux instead of Windows
I don’t and don’t really have any plans to ever create a Windows version of elementary icons. That is, of course, unless Microsoft uses the freedesktop icon naming spec. Then, they will be fully supported 
But, in all seriousness, it would be a LOT of work to convert these icons for use in Windows. And I don’t have a machine to test it on :p
Fair enough, but it’s fairly easy for me (I think) to convert PNGs to ICOs of the same size. In other words, I could convert a 32×32 PNG to a 32×32 ICO without out too much trouble.
But I think I can wait until you release Elementary OS. Tango can hold me over until you’ve published something neat to play with
Well, if you make a port, please let me know and I’ll post a link
Hi everyone! I really like the idea and concepts that you have presented. I think Elementary OS is extremely good idea. The only way I can think of to help out is promote Elementary on my website. Since I’ve become disabled my hobby is photography and Linux. If there’s anything I can do to help out just let me know.
Keep up the great work!
Is there a plan to add WINE to the new OS it sure would make a advantage if you use MS Office I use WINE 1.1.42 and work with WINE projects to make it a part of the OS, I use Ubuntu and run MS Office and it works great, but upgrades don’t work. I look at my Ubuntu Linux Desktop and I have customized it to look like OS-X and with compiz none of my Windows friend can do any of the effects so I hope compiz is included nothing can compare to this program. I love Ubuntu OS and have no plan to change. Unless you can make Ubuntu with Compiz better I would have to consider upgrading to x64.
first, great work guys. I love almost everything about elementary. But in later versions of nautilus-elementary i see the problem with localization(at least with russian locale). Almost 1/3 of menu entries are in english. The question: is there a way to fix this? The suggestion: I could help with translation, just tell me how. And thanx for what you do.
es un gran proyecto visualmente excelente el concepto magnifico muy bueno sigan avanzando
el software libre sigue evolucionando
en mi pais ha nacido un gran interes sobre el software libre la diferencia que hay desde hace 5 años a ahora es grande creo que este pais va ser lider en software en el futuro por lo menos en latinoamerica
saludos desde Venezuela